Do You Watch TV Shows Online?

I loved relaxing at the end of a crazy day with a new episode of one of my favorite shows. But since I never could watch shows when they were live, I would have to record them — on VHS! (I know – I didn’t get TiVo until this year! So sad!)

When September rolled around, programming my VHS became a constant source of stress. I hated to keep track of what tapes had what shows on them, and which tape had room to record. AND when I messed up and missed one of my favorite shows, I was completely miserable!

As much as I loved having a special treat recorded for when I finally had the kids asleep and my work done, the effort of it made me almost dread the new seasons starting.

But NOW my TV viewing has become blissful. I am no longer chained to my VCR and left devastated when I missed taping an episode. I can go online!

I am so busy this year, I haven’t even taken the time to program most of my favorite shows on my TiVo. But I don’t worry because I can just go online and watch full episodes of Glee, The Office, Desperate Housewives, and Grey’s Anatomy, etc.

Since I am Canadian, my online options are limited compared to you lucky Americans. The major networks block their shows from being played outside of the states. But I have been able to find my favorites on the affiliated Canadian network websites. SUCH a relief!

Just recently my friend, Barbara Jones from One 2 One Network, asked me to check out Fancast and let you all know what I thought of it.

Since I love to watch TV shows online, I said, “No problem!” (Apparently by posting this I am also entered into a random draw for $100. But whatever — I am hardly counting on winning a random draw! LOL I just wanted to chat with you all more about one of my new favorite things – watching TV online! I actually asked about your TV viewing habits the other day over at our site, Say it Face to Face.com)Fancast looks great with tons of shows, extras, and even some movies to watch — all for FREE!

Unfortunately, since I am Canadian, the network shows are still blocked for me. Boo hoo! But I can watch the special feature and extras.

Fancast debuted in January 2008 and now has more than 10,000 hours of online video programming; with more than 60,000 videos available, including over 13,000 full-length shows (more are being added every day)

Fancast aggregates TV content from more than 100 sources (including Hulu), but Fancast has more TV extras than any other site including: movies, pictorials, blogs, listings, live chats and Q&A’s with stars, and much more.

There are limited commercial breaks but it’s not a whole block of them so that is no problem. Plus, I would rather watch a 10 second ad and get to use the site for free! So thank you to the sponsors!
Your Turn: Do you watch TV shows live, online, or on TiVo/DVR?

About Janice

Comments

My husband absolutely refuses to get cable, dish or anything other than plain ole TV. Now that we have the digital stuff, we have lost our ability to get Fox and CBS. This is when I discovered Fancast. I love Fancast!!

We don’t have a TV/VCR/DVD player, and we haven’t for about 5 years.
We use our computer. We have a TV tuner on the computer and we record shows that we can’t watch online. This is great for shows like Curious George & Clifford re-runs for the kids.
Of course, we do have a great selection of online shows to watch as well. I am not a big “tv-watcher” but there are times: For example, if I am sick (or really tired–I’m pregnant again!) I may be in the mood or watch two or three shows. And it is great to have ALL my favorite shows so easily accessible!

Not on fancast… but WOWZER! That sound terrific! I watch online at ABC, which is nice and smooth, but at CBS it takes LONGER to watch an hour show WITHOUT THE COMMERCIALS because of the lag… just sayin’ Thanks for the revue… I might have to check that out!

I don’t know what I did before DVR. It’s the best! I would really like to check out Fancast. I need to connect my computer to the TV I just haven’t made it to that point yet. I think I’ll become a Hulu junkie if I do, and then it’ll all go downhill. Ha.

I thought I was the only soul left without a DVR! We just got one a few months ago, before that I watched A LOT of shows online and I still watch some since my DVR can only record 2 at a time. I will have to check out Fancast! Thanks

Our VCR broke a while ago and we haven’t replaced it. There aren’t that many shows we really care about, but it is a bit frustrating to not be able to record anything! I just checked out Fancast and quickly found something I had been wanting to see – very cool.

We haven’t had satellite since 2004, and we don’t even have an antenna. We basically stopped watching TV (except for the DVDs that we buy) until we discovered Hulu. Now we watch a few shows regularly (Castle, Bones, Family Guy, Warehouse 13) again. We try out some shows that don’t catch our fancy. We watch the occasional movie there, too. It’s great, because it fits our schedule and it’s basically free.

For those of you in Canada, Australia and all parts in between I would look at these 2 sites which will allow you to watch all your favorite TV shows from just about anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection. And I mean ALL your favorite shows. http://www.tv4pcs.net and http://www.yourteamlive.com

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[…] say that I didn’t goof off today. A couple of days ago, I heard about the Fancast website on 5 Minutes for Mom. They have full length episodes of various TV shows available online, so I just had to check it […]